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Why did you decide to write the book and how did you go about researching it?
I started birdwatching when I was seven or eight and have loved birds ever since. I’ve always thought they were very resourceful animals. So when reports began to surface in the news about birds solving problems on par with primates, I took notice. There were birds that could craft tools, solve sophisticated puzzles, remember where they put things, create “designs” out of berries and blossoms, and even understand the mental state of another individual. I was fascinated and wanted to explore what science is learning about how the bird mind works.

I read hundreds of papers in ornithological and scientific journals and attended conferences on birdsong and bird brains. I took a course in field ornithology. And I traveled to many places and communicated with researchers studying bird cognition all over the world—in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, Japan, Canada, the U.S., and the UK. What I learned while researching this book was a revelation.

How has our understanding of the avian brain changed over time?
We once thought that birds simply didn’t have the brain wiring that allows for intelligence. They didn’t have a cortex like ours, where all the “smart stuff” happens, so we assumed they weren’t capable of sophisticated mental skills.

Then, over the past couple of decades, scientists began to observe some astoundingly clever behavior in birds that rivaled that of primates. This led to a rethinking of bird brains and a reexamination of their anatomy. As it turns out, birds may not have a cortex like ours, with neurons organized the way ours are organized, but they have sophisticated information processing systems that work like ours—they’re just arranged differently.

Did you find their behaviour similar to humans?
Birds do many of the same things humans do, though often in different ways and for different reasons. They count. They craft tools. They deceive and manipulate other birds. They solve problems. They remember the past and plan for the future. They can do these things even though their brains are a fraction of the size of ours. But it’s important not to assume that birds think and feel exactly as we do. They have their own unique ways of sensing the world, experiencing it, and responding to it.

Why do you think nature writing is experiencing such a boom?
For several reasons. As our focus and dependence on the electronic world, the virtual world, picks up pace, more and more people are feeling the loss of nature in their own lives. I believe that we get enormous pleasure and comfort from being out in the natural world and recognizing its power to quiet the mind and open the heart. It’s our first home, after all, and people want to be reminded of that connection.